Star Wars - Darth Plagueis

The Supreme Chancellor’s round face looked drawn, and perspiration beaded his clean-shaven upper lip. Clinging to his arm like an adornment was Sei Taria, ostensibly his administrative aide but also his lover. Just inside the threshold, Valorum hooked his thumbs in the wide blue cummerbund that cinched his robe and stopped to take in the suite and nod in appreciation.
    “What the HoloNet newshounds would give to see this.”
    “It’s hardly a penthouse,” Palpatine said dismissively.
    “Not yet, he means,” Corellia’s Senator remarked, causing several others to lift their drink goblets in a kind of toast.
    Palpatine pretended to mask embarrassment. Once he would havebeen acting; now he wore the guise of Naboo’s Senator as effortlessly as he wore his robes and cloak.
    “Journalists are more than welcome to visit,” he said.
    Valorum cocked a silver eyebrow in doubt.
    “Now that you’ve gotten them accustomed to transparency and accessibility,” Palpatine added.
    Valorum laughed without mirth. “For all the good it has done me.”
    Sei Taria broke an awkward silence. “You certainly make no secret of your favorite color, Senator.” The lids of her oblique eyes were colored to match the burgundy of her septsilk robe; her dark hair was twisted into an elaborate bun behind her head, while in front, bangs bisected her flawless forehead.
    “Scarlet figures prominently in the crest of my ancestral house,” Palpatine explained evenly.
    “And yet you favor black and blue in everything you wear.”
    Palpatine’s thin smile held. “I’m flattered that you notice.”
    Taria’s expression turned devious. “Many have taken notice of you, Senator.”
    Servants hurried over to take Valorum’s and Taria’s veda cloth cloaks.
    “I hired them expressly for the evening,” Palpatine said quietly. “I’m a solitary man at heart.”
    Taria spoke before Valorum could. “The title of the latest HoloNet piece about you, if I’m not mistaken. The Senator who turned his back on a vast fortune to devote himself to politics. Who worked his way up from Naboo’s legislative body to the ambassadorship to the Galactic Senate …” She smiled without showing her teeth. “A heartwarming story.”
    “And every word of it true,” Palpatine said. “From a certain point of view.”
    The three of them shared a laugh, and then Palpatine led them deeper into the press of guests, all of whom were well disposed toward Valorum. There was no one in the suite the Supreme Chancellor didn’t know, and he greeted every one of them by name. The ability to make beings feel as if they mattered to him, personally as well as politically, was one of his few strengths.
    A protocol droid delivered drinks on a tray, and Valorum and Taria helped themselves to glasses. When Valorum’s trophy excused herself tomake conversation with the wife of Alderaanian Senator Bail Antilles, Palpatine steered Valorum into the suite’s main room.
    “How is it that you manage to enjoy the support of both the Core and Rim Factions?” Valorum asked in genuine interest.
    “A consequence of Naboo’s location more than anything else. Mine is something of a displaced world—located in the Rim but sharing the sensibilities of many of the Core worlds.”
    Valorum gestured to a figurine in a wall niche. “Exquisite.”
    “Quite. A gift from Senator Eelen Li.”
    “From Triffis.”
    Palpatine reoriented the figurine slightly. “A museum piece, actually.”
    Valorum continued along the wall, indicating a second piece. “And this?”
    “A ceremonial Gran wind drum. Over one thousand years old.” He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Valorum. “A present from Baskol Yeesrim.”
    Valorum nodded. “Senator Ainlee Teem’s aide. I didn’t realize you were on good terms with the Gran Protectorate.”
    Palpatine shrugged. “For a time I wasn’t—owing to a long-standing feud over Naboo’s abstention in a Senatorial vote of some significance at the time, but ancient history now.”
    Valorum lowered his voice to ask, “Do you think you could bring Malastare over to my side?”
    Palpatine swung to look at him. “Regarding the embargo of Yinchorr? Possibly. But not on the matter of taxing the free-trade zones. Both Ainlee Teem and Aks Moe have become allies of the Trade Federation.”
    “An even more bewildering reversal.” Valorum sighed. “Friends become enemies; enemies, friends … I suspect I’m going to have to call in every political